Page 329 - The snake's pass

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A GRIM WARNING. 317
were able to listen to his fun without wanting to kill
him.
On the journey back, Dick—when Andy allowed him
speech—explained to me the various phenomena which we
had noticed. When we got back to the hotel it was night.
Had the weather been fine we might have expected a
couple more hours of twilight ; but with the mass of
driving clouds overhead, and the steady downpour of rain,
and the fierce rush of the wind, there was left to us not
the slightest suggestion of day.
We went to bed early, for I had to rise by daylight
for our journey on the morrow. After lying awake for
some time listening to the roar of the storm and the
dash of the rain, and wondering if it were to go on for
ever, I sank into a troubled sleep.
It seemed to me that all the nightmares which had
individually afflicted me during the last week returned
to assail me collectively on the present occasion. I was
a sort of Mazeppa in the world of dreams. Again and
again the fatal hill and all its mystic and terrible asso-
ciations haunted me!—Again the snakes writhed around
and took terrible forms ! Again she I loved was in peril
Again Murdock seemed to arise in new forms of terror
and wickedness! Again the lost treasure was sought
under terrible conditions; and once again I seemed to
sit on the table-rock with Norah, and to see the whole
mountain rush down on us in a dread avalanche, and
turn to myriad snakes as it came! And again Norah
seemed to call to me, " Help ! help ! Arthur ! Save